ST PETER PORT Harbour is in line for major developments.
Harbour master Captain Peter Gill said plans for essential new cranes were coming along well.
He would also like to see more pontoons and facilities to accommodate cruise liner passengers in place before the next season.
‘These are big steps forward for everybody,’ he said. Replacing the five existing cranes with two new ones was approved by the States in August and now the detailed plan is with Public Services for approval.
‘The cranes are essential. A third of everything that comes into the island does so by ship and a great deal needs to be lifted.’
Installing the cranes will involve structural work to the pier on which they stand, he said.
‘The cranes on berths four, five and six are old, well past their sell-by date. We don’t know how long we can keep them functioning so we need a plan to replace them, but the replacements are heavy and we must make sure the jetty is fit for purpose.’
He said the cranes would cost something in the order of £10m.
‘Some say plans to extend the airport runway are essential and others say it would be nice - but this is not a case of nice or not.
‘Life as you and I know it stops without the cranes. This is fundamental.’
‘The cranes should not dramatically change the appearance of the harbour. They are almost exactly the same size as the ones in operation now, though there are two, not five.’
He was not sure what colour they would be.
The temporary pontoon installed primarily for cruise passengers last year was successful enough to warrant permanent replacements, he said.
‘The feedback has been amazingly positive, better than expected, I am very pleased.’
The new facilities should help aged and disabled as well as able-bodied passengers, he said.
‘The last thing we want is to have someone falling off a ladder or an open staircase - these should improve access and safety for every tourist, for everybody.’
Steel pontoons, strong enough to berth the Sark boats, would replace the current one, he said.
‘It is not possible to meet the letter of standards referring to catering for disabled people, purely because of our huge rise and fall of the tide here, but we are moving with the spirit of it.’
Further developments are also being considered.
‘We have been looking at providing other facilities and an external group came up with a range of options and there are a number of modest moves we are considering taking, such as weatherproofing on the pontoons,’ said Captain Gill.
‘We are doing it gradually, taking it one at a time and being logical.’
Article posted on 8th January, 2009 - 11.30am
9 Article Comments
Under the present economic circumstances, this is one improvement that could be put on the back-burner. I stand to be corrected, but does not the majority of cargo arrive by ro-ro ? The companies which use crane-on/off are I believe Huelin Renouf and Channel Seaways.
Just who is going to pay the £10 m ? Or is this going to be passed on to the final consumer yet again?
And why five cranes? For the majority of the time these are standing idle. Not since the days of the tomato boats have I seen them in full operation.
Time to re-evaluate maybe…
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Ref the above..should read why 2 cranes at 5m each!
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Martin:
I do agree i believe most cargo comes by Ro-Ro but it also says they are replacing the 5 old cranes with 2 new ones, so they are downsizing and reducing costs a little.
But with the runway needing improvements, where is all this money coming from!? obviously the states have a forest of money trees.
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Good points Martin.
Incredibly this States seems hell bent on spending money.
The good people of Jersey and the Isle of Man must be grateful to the Guernsey taxpayer for buying the Vedrey Tora that seems to spoend much of its time topping up the fuel supplies of Jersey and the Isle of Man.
So far as the other vessel, the Vedrey Thor, I fail to understand the sense in buying a tanker that has spent much of its time at anchor off the Ilse of Wight or in the Baltic and latterly scheduled to go to Hull.
If there was a real concern about the supply of fuel isn’t it odd that the concern was not shared by the other two islands?
Hopefully we shall have full disclosure before the debate to ratify the purchase.
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It actually says “Replacing the five existing cranes with two new ones” which means get rid of the five and input 2 new ones.
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Actually we can do all this now because a local charity called Bailiwick Investments has been formed to help all the States projects which may come up in the future.
I’ve even heard that the two new cranes are going to be named Tom and Jerry.
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Our harbour already appears to be very expensive to operate in and out off.
Whilst the Department of Commerce seem to think that they have done a great job by getting Condor to agree to 5 sailings per week throughout the year this is surely a reduction as the Clipper operates 6 days a week already.
Commerce surely should look at the following:-
Why do passengers travelling Guernsey - UK and return pay the same as Jersey passengers travelling to the UK and return. We must be subsidising the Jersey fare. This is particularly true if one considers that we pay £136 to take a car and two people to Jersey and back. Jersey rsidents get this part of their journey to and from the UK for nothing.
Whilst looking at Condor fares I found on the Condor web site that to take mysel, wife and car to and from the UK will cost me £350 but on the same dates you can travel UK to St Malo by Condor two people and a car for £300. Am I just a cynic or does the fact the Condor have other operators in compeition between UK and France have anything to do with this.
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Problem is Muzeek, that too many believe, as David Cranch points out elsewhere, that Tom Scott and Charles Bilson et al are charities, rather than people who see a commercial opportunity favourable to themselves.
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Any idea what the structural improvements to the jetty will cost? Is this part of the £10m? If the improvements are significantly structural could be another few £m’s+
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